Warp drawing-in apparatus



0d; 1968 J. M. TRIPLETT 3,407,460

WARP DRAWING-IN APPARATUS Filed May 16, 1967 F I G. I

112m! A s United States PatentIO Wee 3,407,460 WARP DRAWING-IN APPARATU John Maurice Triplett, Grifton, N.C., assignor to El. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Wilmington, Del., a corporation of Delaware Filed May 16, 1967, Ser. No. 638,958

2 Claims; (Cl. 28--44) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An apparatus for assisting in initial string-up of filaments through narrow elongated openings, the apparatus being in combination with a textile reed having a plurality of closely spaced dents, comprising an axially rotatable rod adjacent and extending substantially parallel to the length of said reed, a rod-supporting member, rod-rotating means, and a thin shaped member slidably mounted on said rod and rotatable therewith, said shaped member having thread-engaging means and separate dent-engaging means, the assembly being such that upon full rotations of the rod said shaped member slides down the rod, the dent-engaging means sequentially engaging successive dents, the thread-engaging means moving sequentially in and out of the spaces between juxtaposed dents.

Background of the invention (1) Field of the invention.This invention relates to textile drawing-in devices and more particularly to an apparatus for assisting initial string-up of filaments through narrow elongated openings such as encountered in textile beaming operations.

In many commercial textile operations, particularly in beaming operations, reeds are customarily used to assure proper distribution of yarn ends on the finished beam. In these operations a plurality of yarn ends to be wound onto the beam is passed from a package located in a suitable creel through the reed that is placed between the creel and the beam. Single yarn ends separately pass from the creel through each opening in the reed, i.e., between each pair of dents, of the reed and then to the beam.

(2) Description of the prior art-It is necessary to string up the reed prior to startup of such beaming operations. A few automatic devices for accomplishing this task are commercially available, but they are expensive, useful only in conjunction with straight reeds, and require considerable adjustment in changing from one reed to another of different size. Thus, many manufacturers have reluctantly retained the old procedure of stringing the fan reed by hand, a process which is timeconsuming and tedious. No string-up device is known in the prior art which discloses or suggests the principle embodied in applicants invention.

Summary of the invention The present invention provides an extremely simple apparatus for assisting in textile reed string-up. Another provision is a string-up device which possesses great versatility for use with both fan and straight reeds of various sizes. Other provisions will appear hereinafter.

These provisions are realized by an assembly, in combination with a textile reed having a plurality of closely spaced dents, comprising an axially rotatable rod adjacent and extending substantially parallel to the length of said reed, a rod-supporting member, rod-rotating means, and a thin shaped member slidably mounted on said rod and rotatable therewith, said shaped member having threadengaging means and separate dent-engaging means, the assembly being such that upon full rotations of the rod the shaped member slides down the rod by the action of 7 Patented. Oct. 29, 1968 the dentengagingmeans which sequentially engages successive dents,'the thread-engaging means moving sequentially in and out of the spaces between juxtaposed dents.

Brief description of the drawing and the preferred,

embodiment member showing its operation in accordance with the present invention. v

Referring now to the drawings in which like characters of reference designate similar parts in the various views, FIGURE 1 shows fan reed 1 having a plurality of closely spaced dents 2, square rod 3 rotatable in the direction of the arrow, rod-supporting member 4, rod-rotating means 5, thin shaped member 6, and yarn 7 entering the reed from a creel (not shown); FIGURE 2 shows shaped member 6 which is slightly bent toward the reeder at portion a and having thread-engaging notch 8 and reedengaging means 9; FIGURE 3 shows the shaped member in operation (rod not shown, for clarity), rotating in the direction of the arrow, traveling along the rod in a direction opposite that indicated in FIGURE 1, and about to engage yarn 7 and nearest reed dent 2; FIGURE 4 shows the shaped member in motion continued from FIGURE 3, having engaged yarn 7 and drawn it between dents 2 and about to move to a closer dent (not shown).

In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the rod along which the shaped member travels is of a square cross section. The rod may be composed of a suitable metal, such as steel, or a rigid plastic. The shaped member may be made of like materials. The rod-rotating means may be an ordinary electric motor, a hand wheel, or the like.

In actual operation, an operator stands between the creel and the reed and takes the yarn ends from the creel. The rod is caused to rotate producing corresponding movement of the shaped member until the thread-engaging means thereof is on his side of the reed. The operator places a yarn end in the thread-engaging slot and the continued rotation of the rod causes the shaped member to draw the thread through juxtaposed reed dents at which time another operator removes the thread from the shaped member and places it in a position suitable for being strung up onto a beam, and the sequence continues. In this manner, the tedious and eyestraining chore of placing yarn ends through the reed by hand is eliminated.

The present invention has the particular advantage of facilitating textile reed-string-up operations. In actual tests beam-string-up time was decreased by approximately one-half in comparison to the conventional operation of manually passing threads through the reed. Another noteworthy advantage of the new device is that the shaped member is not only readily adaptable to straight reeds having different dent-spacings, but also to fan reeds having dents positioned at various angles to the rod. One could imagine a worm gear instead of a square rod to move the shaped member, but the pitch of the Worm would need changing with each reed of different dentspacing, an adjustment not necessary in the device of the present invention.

Automatic devices for removing the yarn end from the yarn-engaging means after the thread has passed through the reed such as, for example, a striker bar or sucker gun moving down the reed concurrently with the shaped member will be obvious tothose skilled in the art in view of this specification.

Although this invention has been described particularly with reference to the preferred embodiment, other embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art and are considered within the spirit and scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In combination with a textile reed having a plurality of closely spaced dents which comprises:

(a) an axially rotatable rod;

(b) a rod supporting member for mounting said rod adjacent to and substantially parallel to the length of said reed;

(c) rod rotating means;

(d) a shaped disk member having thread-engaging means and separate dent-engaging means, said member being slidably mounted on said rod for rotation therewith; said thread-engaging means being located a distance from the rod sufficient to extend through the dents when aligned therewith; said dent engaging means being arranged to contact the succeeding dent to be threaded and slide the disk member along the rod with rotation of the rod sequentially to the succeeding dent to be threaded.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the yarn engaging means and the dent engaging means are located on the extremities of the disk member and with respect to the rod are 90 to 180 degrees apart, the yarn engaging means being located in the plane of a substantial portion of the disk member and the dent engaging means being located in a plane oblique to the plane of the substantial portion of the disk member, the dent engaging means defining an inclined plane for sliding the disk member to successive dents with rotation of the rod.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,624,928 4/1927 Colman 28-44 2,696,654 12/1954 Townsend 28-44 LOUIS K. RIMRODT, Primary Examiner. 

